Klemski, Cecilia

ORAL HISTORY OF CECILIA KLEMSKI
Interviewed and Filmed by Keith McDaniel
November 4, 2010
Mr. McDaniel: So I am here today – this is November the 4th, 2010 – with Cecilia Klemski, and her address is 121 Hanover Place here in Oak Ridge. So, Mrs. Klemski, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your background, where you were born, where you were raised, about your family.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, I was born in the coal mine town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. My dad was a coal miner. He came from Poland and they married when my mother was seventeen years old. There was six of us children and of course we all went to public school there and Catholic schools. Then, when I graduated from high school, there was nothing in that town. My mother said, “You go to New Jersey.” I had an aunt and a grandmother that lived in New Jersey. She said, “You go there and get a job.” Well, I couldn’t find a job at that time. I graduated in 1937. Things were kind of hard. So finally a cousin of mine said, “Why don’t you take a Civil Service test?” He said, “I think that’s the best way to get a job.” It wasn’t two weeks till I had an appointment to work in Washington, D.C. Well, of course, my mother didn’t want me to leave, but finally I talked her into it.
Mr. McDaniel: Let’s go back just a minute there. So what year were you born, if you don’t mind me asking?
Mrs. Klemski: In 1919.
Mr. McDaniel: In 1919?
Mrs. Klemski: In 1919.
Mr. McDaniel: So you grew up there in Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, graduated in 1937.
Mr. McDaniel: In ’37 from high school.
Mrs. Klemski: From high school.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, do you have any brothers or sisters?
Mrs. Klemski: I had five brothers and sisters. I was the third from the bottom.
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, did all of them graduate from high school?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, they all graduated from high school. Of course, some of them went on to college. Of course, my two brothers, they went into the service right after high school. Then my oldest brother, he went into the seminary and became a Catholic priest.
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: And he was a priest for sixty years.
Mr. McDaniel: Really? Now, how many of your siblings are still living?
Mrs. Klemski: Just one sister.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Just one sister?
Mrs. Klemski: She’s in South Carolina. In fact, she married a fellow from Oak Ridge. She came to Oak Ridge to visit me and met this fellow and married him. Then he moved to Augusta, Georgia with the DuPont Company at that time.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. So she and I are the only ones. She’s two years younger than I am.
Mr. McDaniel: So that would make you ninety-one?
Mrs. Klemski: I’m ninety-one, going to be ninety-two in May.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So I’m getting old. I grew up in Oak Ridge. I really did, because I came here in 1943, in August of ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: So in ’37 you graduated high school. So you took the Civil Service test.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, I took that the following year.
Mr. McDaniel: Just the following year. Then, so you got a job.
Mrs. Klemski: Got a job right away, went to Washington. It was early 1939; it was during the war. Of course, my two brothers had gone into the Army and I worked there in the State Department. I worked under Ambassador Grew who was the Ambassador to Japan. I worked with him. In fact, he wanted me to go to Australia with him, and my mother wouldn’t let me. Then of course, I had a brother that was missing in action in Germany, my older brother. She said, “You’ve got to come home.” So I went to Pennsylvania, stayed there a couple months. Finally, I asked for a transfer. So I transferred to New York then, and from New York they sent me here.
Mr. McDaniel: So when you came back to Pennsylvania were you still working?
Mrs. Klemski: No, because I couldn’t find a job. Shenandoah is a little town and there was really nothing to do for me. I was a secretary. I trained in high school, couldn’t go to college. My mother didn’t have the money to send me to college. So I was a secretary, took the test, and of course I passed my Civil Service test, and that’s the way I got my job first in Washington. I worked there for three years. Then I transferred to New York.
Mr. McDaniel: Right. So you went to New York. What did you do in New York?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, it was with the Manhattan District. See, I had asked for a transfer because I was working for the government. I was working for the government, and I said, “Could I transfer someplace close to Pennsylvania?” They offered me this job at the Manhattan District at Fifth Avenue. I wasn’t there six months till they said, “We’re moving.”
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: I asked them where and they said, “Well, I can’t tell you where we’re going.” But I said, “I’m going with you.”
Mr. McDaniel: So you were a secretary in New York at the Manhattan District.
Mrs. Klemski: I was secretary.
Mr. McDaniel: Were you a secretary to a specific person or to a group?
Mrs. Klemski: To a group. They used to call them pools. You were put in this pool and then whoever called for you to take dictation, you went there to his office.
Mr. McDaniel: So it was the Manhattan District. Did you know what was going on? Did you know anything about it?
Mrs. Klemski: No, they told me absolutely nothing. Now, I worked for the State Department when I was in Washington, but of course this was, they said, Manhattan District. I worked under Colonel Vanden Bulck up in New York. Then of course he transferred to Oak Ridge, too.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Now, I guess before you went to work for the State Department did they do any kind of security clearance on you before you took that job?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. What do you remember?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, when I first took that Civil Service test, that’s when they went to Pennsylvania, and my mother said the security people were there every day asking about what I did. Of course, my dad was a coal miner, and there was nothing they could gain there because I graduated from high school. It was just a regular – in other words, I lived just a regular life.
Mr. McDaniel: Regular, small town, rural life.
Mrs. Klemski: Small town, nothing doing there.
Mr. McDaniel: Had you ever been anywhere else? Had you traveled before you went to Washington? Had you ever been anywhere?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I would go to see my brother in Texas because he was ordained in 1937. So I used to go to Texas to visit him.
Mr. McDaniel: Where in Texas did you go?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, he was first stationed in Vernon, Texas. Then he was transferred to Longview, Texas, and that’s where he died, in Longview.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Mhm.
Mr. McDaniel: So you went to New York and you worked in the secretarial pool there for what, for six months?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Then they transferred you to Oak Ridge.
Mrs. Klemski: Then they said they were moving.
Mr. McDaniel: So tell me about that. Tell me about that experience.
Mrs. Klemski: Well that was kind of exciting because they said, “We’re moving.” Of course, when I told my mother, she didn’t like that very much, but she agreed. She agreed to let me go. I thought it was exciting, going someplace I didn’t know where I was going. They got me my train ticket; I rode first class on the train. Came here to Oak Ridge. Rainy, rainy day. They pulled up at the AEC building and tried to drop me off. Well, the woman before me stepped in mud up to her knees, and I had black suede shoes that I paid twenty-three dollars for. I said, ��I can’t do that.” [telephone rings] Excuse me.
Mr. McDaniel: That’s okay. Hold on just a second. Let me turn the camera off. Do you need to get that or do you want to just let it ring?
[break in interview]
Mr. McDaniel: Okay. So you had these black suede shoes, and they tried to drop you off at the –
Mrs. Klemski: Up at the AEC building and the mud was – well you can imagine in August of ’43. We had the AEC building, we had the dormitory that I was going to live in, and they had just started building some homes along Tennessee Avenue. This was a rural town. There was nothing here when I came, you know. So I wouldn’t step in that mud, so the cab driver carried me inside. But the woman that stepped in that mud before me, she was up to her knees in mud.
[break in recording]
Mr. McDaniel: So you walked from your dorm to work, barefoot.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, had to because the mud was so deep. It was really – they didn’t have any sidewalks. You know, this was August of ’43. There was nothing here. So, I said I came in the early days, but I really enjoyed my stay here.
Mr. McDaniel: So when you first got here what did you do? Where did you work?
Mrs. Klemski: Up at the AEC building.
Mr. McDaniel: Was that the Castle on the Hill?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. And I worked under – Colonel Vanden Bulck was the top boss. Then I worked for Mr. Smitts. I was in the insurance section. That looks like somebody coming here.
Mr. McDaniel: Well, I’ll answer it.
[break in recording]
Mr. McDaniel: So you worked for Vanden Bulck.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he was the top boss. Then I worked for Mr. Smitts. He had the secretarial pool, but every time Colonel Vanden Bulck – every time he had somebody to visit, he’d call me in for a dictation. That’s how I met General Groves. I didn’t know it was General Groves. He introduced himself as G.G. So I called him G.G. the whole time. Of course, Colonel Vanden Bulck had his own secretary, but every time she was out of town they would call me in to take dictation. I took dictation from General Groves and then several months later found out that it was General Groves.
Mr. McDaniel: What was he like? Tell me.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, he was wonderful. When I first met him he said, “I’m G.G.” So I called him G.G. all the time. Of course, Colonel Vanden Bulck’s secretary, Sherry, her name was Sherry, she was out of town quite a bit and I don’t know whether she traveled for him. So I took quite a bit of dictation from General Groves and from Colonel Vanden Bulck, too. But I got to know Colonel Vanden Bulck pretty good and of course General Groves, too. He was a big man. Of course he was a general, but he used to just call me – he was in uniform, however, but at that time I didn’t think too much about that.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess they were very careful in the letters that they wrote.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess they talked around things a lot I’m sure.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, they did. Well, of course we knew not to say anything. In fact, I think we all worried about it. We’d get together in the dorm and talk about it. They’d say, “Well do you think they listened to what we said today? I hope they didn’t record us.” There was just that fear that you might be mentioned or something like that.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Now when you first came to Oak Ridge, did you go through any security training or anything like that?
Mrs. Klemski: No. The limo took me up to the AEC building. Of course we had the gates you know. You couldn’t get past those gates. In fact, I had a brother – when I first got married here – I got married here in ’45 – met my husband here – I had a brother who was in the Army and he was getting ready to ship overseas, and he wanted to come see me. So he pulled in. Of course, didn’t tell me he was coming. I got this call at home at 2:00 in the morning, “Your brother’s here.��� Well, of course I didn’t have a pass for him. You had to get a pass for everybody. I said, “Clem, I can’t come down and get you.” He said, “What the hell kind of town is this?” He said, “Here I am in the Army; they won’t let me visit you.” He had to wait until the next morning till I could get a pass, and he came and spent a couple of days with me.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Well that’s good. What did he do, just hang around or did he find someplace to sleep?
Mrs. Klemski: He was at that little guest house at the Elza gate, and they played poker all night long. He said they offered him drinks. At that time we had no beer, no nothing. He said, “Oh,” he said, “They were wonderful to me.” Of course him being in the Army, I suppose that’s the reason.
Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure.
Mrs. Klemski: So he stayed with me a couple days and I had to get a pass for him.
Mr. McDaniel: Now you lived in the dorm at the time?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, I lived in number 1, the first dorm that was built.
Mr. McDaniel: Where was that?
Mrs. Klemski: You know where that old cafeteria used to be?
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm.
Mrs. Klemski: Right across the street. Of course, they pulled it down now, but it was a big dorm.
Mr. McDaniel: So you ate at the cafeteria.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, was that the Central Cafeteria?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, the Central Cafeteria.
Mr. McDaniel: What was that food like?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, it was good. The only trouble is there wasn’t enough of it and you couldn’t go to the grocery store and buy something, but we managed. We finally bought a little hot plate and of course we had grocery stores. We would fix some soup and things like that because it seemed like the cafeteria was never open when you were hungry. But it was exciting. It was an exciting adventure.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, what was it like being here a young, single lady? And I guess there was a lot, from what I understand, there was a lot to do for singles and there were a lot of young, single folks here.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, there were a lot. They had dances. They had dances at the tennis courts. They had a bowling alley. Oh, just so many things. We were busy constantly. In the evening we’d get together, a group of us would. Of course then we met some of the young men. Our pastor, the Catholic priest, the week that I came to Oak Ridge – of course, I went up to his home on Geneva Avenue and he was going to organize a young people’s group. He said, “I’m going to organize you young people so that you can meet each other and marry.”
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, and there were quite a few marriages in that group.
Mr. McDaniel: Was your mass being held at the Central Theater or was it at the Chapel on the Hill?
Mrs. Klemski: Well first at the Central Theater and then at the Chapel on the Hill or maybe vice versa. I can’t remember which was first. I think it was the theater.
Mr. McDaniel: Yeah, I think the theater was first.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah. Then we’d go to the Chapel on the Hill. That little chapel was precious. It really was. Then of course in 1950 we built our church, but that first pastor, that Father Singer, he was wonderful.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: And there were a lot of marriages that took place at that time.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, so you were here. So you moved here in ’43 and you worked as a secretary for General Groves and Vanden Bulck at the Castle on the Hill.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right.
Mr. McDaniel: Then when did you meet your husband? Tell me about meeting him.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, of course, I came in August. I was dating a fellow from – in those early days, those young men were always looking for a girlfriend. I met this young man and he was from Wilmington, Delaware. So I dated him a couple times and then in November of ’43 he said, “I’m going to take you to Knoxville to dinner at the Regas Hotel at the Regas” –
Mr. McDaniel: Restaurant.
Mrs. Klemski: Restaurant. Well, that was a treat because we didn’t have anything like that in Oak Ridge.
Mr. McDaniel: It still is. It still is a treat.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, it is. It really is. I love that place. Then he said, “And we’re going to the train station to pick up my friend who worked for DuPont in Alabama. He’s being transferred to Oak Ridge.” Well, we went to the train station and picked him up and I discovered that he was Polish. I was Polish. He came from Wilmington and he was a good friend of this other fellow. So, of course, I was dating Lou, the first fellow, and after a couple months I thought I think I’d rather date this Polish fellow. So I told Lou, I said, “Lou, I don’t think I want to date you anymore.” In those days it was funny the way you did it, but that’s the way I did it. I said, “I think I’d rather date your roommate.” He said, “Well he has a girlfriend in Alabama.” But three months later he called me and he said, “You want to meet me for coffee at the cafeteria across the street?” Well, my housemother wouldn’t let me go. He worked shift work. He worked for DuPont. My housemother wouldn’t let me go. But after a couple times she finally said okay. So I met him for coffee at 10:00 after he got through work. A couple months later, we dated. A couple months later, he asked me to marry him.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Then we decided to get married in January of ’45. That was another big problem because my folks were old. My dad was a coal miner and of course it was hard to get a pass at that time. And his family was old. So we finally decided to go up home and get married and then come back.
Mr. McDaniel: And then come back.
Mrs. Klemski: So that’s what we did.
Mr. McDaniel: So you went there and you got married and you came back. So where did you live when you came back?
Mrs. Klemski: When I first came back?
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm.
Mrs. Klemski: Of course I lived at the dormitory, but when we got married we got an “E” apartment on Tennessee Avenue. That was our first home. Then, of course, in no time I got pregnant and we moved up on 108 Outer Drive. That was a two-bedroom “A” house. Well, then when I was expecting my second child, we asked for a bigger house. We moved down on East Malta in a “C” house. Every time you had a child you could graduate to a bigger house. That was the way it was. Then when I was expecting my third child, by that time we were able to buy property. So he bought this lot up on East Drive and we built our home up there.
Mr. McDaniel: And you lived there for –
Mrs. Klemski: We lived there until he died. My husband died in 1987, and two years later I just couldn’t afford to keep the house. So that’s when I moved here.
Mr. McDaniel: So you had three children.
Mrs. Klemski: Three children.
Mr. McDaniel: And they grew up in Oak Ridge.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, they all graduated from Oak Ridge High School. They went to St. Mary’s Catholic School for eight years and then graduated from Oak Ridge High. My oldest son was on the police department here while going to University of Tennessee. This was after he joined the Army. He spent twenty-five years in the Army and now he’s retired. And the second son, he worked at the plant. He lives in Oliver Springs now. Then my youngest daughter, she graduated Oak Ridge High School, married a fellow from Oak Ridge. She was a school teacher and now she’s retired in Atlanta.
Mr. McDaniel: Now where does your oldest son live?
Mrs. Klemski: He lives in Sierra Vista, Arizona. That was his last duty station and he loved that area. So that’s where he lives.
Mr. McDaniel: So I guess you get to see them sort of regularly.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, I go there every January and spend a month or so with them. Then of course he comes back to Oak Ridge because he worked on the police department and he still has friends here who he graduated from high school with.
Mr. McDaniel: What was it like raising kids in Oak Ridge during those days?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, it was wonderful.
Mr. McDaniel: So I guess this was the ’50s, I guess.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, that was the ’50s, yeah, because my oldest son was born. We married in January of ’45. He was born in December of ’45. All my children were born in Oak Ridge, all educated here in Oak Ridge. The second son went off to college in Kentucky. He thought he wanted to be a priest, but that didn’t work out. So then he came back and worked at the plant. My daughter graduated from University of Tennessee and she’s a school teacher.
Mr. McDaniel: But when they were young in Oak Ridge, I guess that was a pretty happy time for everybody wasn’t it?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah. Oh, the kids loved Oak Ridge. They really did. It was a wonderful place to raise children. It really was. I think in the early days we had that secret city. It was kind of a chance for us to realize that where we were working. I think it was an important place. My children are all so happy they were born in Oak Ridge. They said, “We had a wonderful growing up.” And I think they did.
Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure they got a good education. They had lots to do.
Mrs. Klemski: They did. They have the best of schools here. Everything was top notch. I think they hired all the best teachers in the early days.
Mr. McDaniel: Let’s go back just a little bit. So, when did you find out what Oak Ridge was doing?
Mrs. Klemski: I don’t think I ever did until my husband retired.
Mr. McDaniel: But you know the bomb, when the bomb was dropped.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah. Well of course they never talked about building the bomb.
Mr. McDaniel: So do you remember that day?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yes. I remember vividly.
Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. So you were pregnant. You were married and pregnant the summer of ’45.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. They talked about the celebration going on. Well, I couldn’t go to that celebration and I wanted to, but of course all my other friends that did go were telling me how wonderful it was. It was just an exciting time. Here I couldn’t do very much at that time, but it was an exciting time anyway.
Mr. McDaniel: Now after your kids were born and got grown up, did you go back to work?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I wanted to because I had a good job with the government. I worked in Washington and then here and I really wanted to go back to work, but my husband said, “I want to family.” He said, “I think you need to stay home and raise a family.” Our pastor at St. Mary’s needed somebody to run the cafeteria. So he asked me if I’d help him out running the cafeteria. So I told him I’d do it for a year or two. I ended up doing it for eighteen years.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. And the school children that are now grown up and married and have children, they still talk about the wonderful food we had because we cooked from scratch. None of this prepared food. Of course, they remember that. That was an exciting time, too.
Mr. McDaniel: Now when did you go there? About what year did you start that?
Mrs. Klemski: I started that – Father Singer came – I guess it was in ’50 when my daughter was in the first grade. I guess it was ’55. He asked me to work. I said, “Well when she starts school I’ll work.” So I did. It was the same school. I could take her to school and work at the same place. So that was good.
Mr. McDaniel: And you did that until the early ’70s.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah. Every time a new priest came in I’d say, “Well I’m going to quit.” They’d beg me to stay on. So I did until my husband had his heart attack in ’73 and I finally had to quit.
Mr. McDaniel: So after the war what did your husband do here?
Mrs. Klemski: Well he worked for DuPont in the beginning. Then DuPont was moving to Charles Town, West Virginia. Incidentally, the first fellow I dated here, my sister came to visit us, I guess it was in April of ’44, yeah, ’44. She met the fellow that I was dating and they married.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Oh my goodness.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he was with DuPont, see. My husband was with DuPont originally. Well then DuPont was leaving here and my husband was supposed to be transferred to Charles Town, West Virginia. I was pregnant, could not go with him, so I said, “Well I’ll go back home and then you decide.” Well in the meantime Monsanto called my husband. He was a machinist at the plant X-10.
Mr. McDaniel: At X-10.
Mrs. Klemski: Monsanto was coming in and they asked him if he would stay on in Oak Ridge. Of course, he was delighted to be able to stay at Oak Ridge. And besides, they offered him a raise to stay. So we were so happy that we could stay. Do you know all the people that went with DuPont to Charles Town, within a year they were back looking for a job because DuPont had pulled out of that plant up there.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So that was a lucky break for us that we stayed on.
Mr. McDaniel: So he was a machinist at X-10.
Mrs. Klemski: He was a machinist at X-10.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, did he do that his whole career?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Of course, DuPont hired him and sent him to Alabama. That’s where he worked when this fellow from Wilmington brought him to Oak Ridge and that’s the first time I met him.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, but he worked at X-10 his whole career?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. In fact, they hired him right after he got through high school. He worked in Wilmington. Then they moved him to Alabama. First they moved him to Florida and then to Alabama. Then from Alabama he came here.
Mr. McDaniel: Now when did he retire?
Mrs. Klemski: Well he had to retire in ’73.
Mr. McDaniel: Because he had a heart attack.
Mrs. Klemski: He had a massive coronary. So of course we doctored with the doctors here in Oak Ridge. At the end of two years they told me there was nothing they could do for him. I had this brother in Texas and he had been in the hospital in Houston and I had met some of the doctors there when my brother had a heart attack. So Dr. Gurney said, “I want to send him to Alabama to a hospital down there.” I said, “Well if it’s all right with you, I’d rather go to Texas because I know some of the doctors there.” I flew him to Texas and, do you know, they evaluated him. Here in Knoxville, they told me if he lived six months that was it.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: They couldn’t do anything for him, but when I took him to Texas, they put in a pacemaker and did all this surgery and said, “Come back in six months.” When we went back in six months they said you’re good to –
Mr. McDaniel: Good to go.
Mrs. Klemski: Good to go. He played golf and had twelve years after that.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So that was a miracle that I took him to Houston because here in Oak Ridge they couldn’t do anything for him.
Mr. McDaniel: Right. Now, how old was he when he passed away?
Mrs. Klemski: He passed away in ’73.
Mr. McDaniel: No, he had his heart attack in ’73. He passed away in ’86?
Mrs. Klemski: In ’87. He passed away in ’87. He was eighty-two when he died.
Mr. McDaniel: Eighty-two, okay.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, so I’ve been alone ever since then.
Mr. McDaniel: Well, do you have any favorite stories or favorite memories about your time in Oak Ridge, whether it was in the early days or later?
Mrs. Klemski: Who me?
Mr. McDaniel: Yes.
Mrs. Klemski: No. It was just such an exciting place to come to. Everything was different. Everything was new. Even the dances at the tennis courts and eating at the Guest House. That was exciting to me coming from a small town naturally. Everything about Oak Ridge has been wonderful. I’ve really had some wonderful memories.
Mr. McDaniel: So you were telling me earlier that you had an opportunity to leave, but I guess your son wanted you to come move near him I suppose.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: And you decided to stay.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he still thinks at ninety-one I should be living someplace, but my husband’s buried here and I told him, I said, “Jim, I just can’t leave Oak Ridge.” I dearly love Oak Ridge. I do. I grew up here. I feel like I did.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess you made lots of good friends that you still have today, I suppose.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. I still have some friends. Of course most of them have passed on, but I made some wonderful friends here. In the early days it seemed like it was a big family. Everybody knew each other. We associated. We visited one another. There was that tightness, which we don’t have it anymore of course, but it was a wonderful place. It was a wonderful place to raise children. My children still say that today. They’re glad they were born and brought up in Oak Ridge because it was a wonderful place, and it was.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, I just have a couple more questions for you. One is – let’s kind of go back. Now, 60-something years later after the war’s over and you found out what you were working on, how did you feel about that when you found out and do you still feel the same way today? I mean that you were working on the bomb, so to speak.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. Of course I wasn’t part of that, but when we heard it was what they were doing here – and see, I had two brothers in the service. One was in the Philippines. The other one was in Germany. They were in the service, both of them. I thought it was wonderful when they found out about that bomb. Then it was exciting to me after that when I’d go down to visit with my son. He was stationed in – oh, a place in Arizona where the – Trinity site.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, the Trinity site.
[Editor’s note: The Trinity site is in New Mexico.]
Mrs. Klemski: And they took me there.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: They took me there. That was exciting because of course I’d been hearing about that, this bomb being developed there and all. So that was exciting to me, too.
Mr. McDaniel: So you were glad that the war was over.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yes, yes, I was. Then of course, both my brothers came home from the service. Of course my younger brother, he had a lot of problems because he was in the Philippines. He was seventeen when he went in. Then my brother in Germany, he was missing in action for a while. Finally they found him, but he’s passed on. So all I’ve got left out of my five brothers and sisters is one sister.
Mr. McDaniel: So now you’re ninety-one. You live here in Oak Ridge. What do you do? What do you do now?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, I get up every morning. I go to mass because I belong to the Catholic Church. Go out for breakfast at Panera’s with all my friends, and to me, that’s my day. Then I come home and just read and catch up on things. I do still have a couple friends here.
Mr. McDaniel: So you still stay social and active.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, oh yeah, I’m trying to. I’ve been getting up every day and going to mass and going out with my group. I think that’s going to keep me going for – I hope for a little while. When you’ve been in a place – it’ll be seventy years in August. August 13th, the day I came to Oak Ridge.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Seventy years because I came in ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, ’43.
Mrs. Klemski: ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: Well is there anything else you want to tell me about? Anything else that you want to mention?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I think we’ve covered most of it, I think. All the exciting times. Those early days were wonderful, I thought. I felt like I grew up in Oak Ridge. I really did. Of course, my children being all educated here, and I love when they come home and say, “Mom, this is a wonderful place to grow up.” They still say that even though they’re scattered all over the United States. I’m glad that they were born in Oak Ridge, too, and I’m glad I came here in ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: All right then. Well thank you very much for allowing me to come talk to you.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, thank you, Mr. McDaniel. I’ve enjoyed talking to you, too. We covered some things that I think I hadn’t mentioned before, but those were exciting times. I think Oak Ridge is a wonderful place to come and all my friends who come, even those that came in ’60s and ’70s, they all say it’s a wonderful place. It is. Of course, at one time, we had 75,000 people. That’s a lot of people.
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm, a lot of people.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, it was. Now we’re down to what – 38,000 or just something like that?
Mr. McDaniel: I think it’s close to 30,000.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, probably.
Mr. McDaniel: Something like that.
Mrs. Klemski: It’s still an exciting town.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. All right, well, thank you very much.
Mrs. Klemski: Okay. Well, thank you, Mr. McDaniel.
[end of recording]

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ORAL HISTORY OF CECILIA KLEMSKI
Interviewed and Filmed by Keith McDaniel
November 4, 2010
Mr. McDaniel: So I am here today – this is November the 4th, 2010 – with Cecilia Klemski, and her address is 121 Hanover Place here in Oak Ridge. So, Mrs. Klemski, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your background, where you were born, where you were raised, about your family.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, I was born in the coal mine town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. My dad was a coal miner. He came from Poland and they married when my mother was seventeen years old. There was six of us children and of course we all went to public school there and Catholic schools. Then, when I graduated from high school, there was nothing in that town. My mother said, “You go to New Jersey.” I had an aunt and a grandmother that lived in New Jersey. She said, “You go there and get a job.” Well, I couldn’t find a job at that time. I graduated in 1937. Things were kind of hard. So finally a cousin of mine said, “Why don’t you take a Civil Service test?” He said, “I think that’s the best way to get a job.” It wasn’t two weeks till I had an appointment to work in Washington, D.C. Well, of course, my mother didn’t want me to leave, but finally I talked her into it.
Mr. McDaniel: Let’s go back just a minute there. So what year were you born, if you don’t mind me asking?
Mrs. Klemski: In 1919.
Mr. McDaniel: In 1919?
Mrs. Klemski: In 1919.
Mr. McDaniel: So you grew up there in Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, graduated in 1937.
Mr. McDaniel: In ’37 from high school.
Mrs. Klemski: From high school.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, do you have any brothers or sisters?
Mrs. Klemski: I had five brothers and sisters. I was the third from the bottom.
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, did all of them graduate from high school?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, they all graduated from high school. Of course, some of them went on to college. Of course, my two brothers, they went into the service right after high school. Then my oldest brother, he went into the seminary and became a Catholic priest.
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: And he was a priest for sixty years.
Mr. McDaniel: Really? Now, how many of your siblings are still living?
Mrs. Klemski: Just one sister.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Just one sister?
Mrs. Klemski: She’s in South Carolina. In fact, she married a fellow from Oak Ridge. She came to Oak Ridge to visit me and met this fellow and married him. Then he moved to Augusta, Georgia with the DuPont Company at that time.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. So she and I are the only ones. She’s two years younger than I am.
Mr. McDaniel: So that would make you ninety-one?
Mrs. Klemski: I’m ninety-one, going to be ninety-two in May.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So I’m getting old. I grew up in Oak Ridge. I really did, because I came here in 1943, in August of ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: So in ’37 you graduated high school. So you took the Civil Service test.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, I took that the following year.
Mr. McDaniel: Just the following year. Then, so you got a job.
Mrs. Klemski: Got a job right away, went to Washington. It was early 1939; it was during the war. Of course, my two brothers had gone into the Army and I worked there in the State Department. I worked under Ambassador Grew who was the Ambassador to Japan. I worked with him. In fact, he wanted me to go to Australia with him, and my mother wouldn’t let me. Then of course, I had a brother that was missing in action in Germany, my older brother. She said, “You’ve got to come home.” So I went to Pennsylvania, stayed there a couple months. Finally, I asked for a transfer. So I transferred to New York then, and from New York they sent me here.
Mr. McDaniel: So when you came back to Pennsylvania were you still working?
Mrs. Klemski: No, because I couldn’t find a job. Shenandoah is a little town and there was really nothing to do for me. I was a secretary. I trained in high school, couldn’t go to college. My mother didn’t have the money to send me to college. So I was a secretary, took the test, and of course I passed my Civil Service test, and that’s the way I got my job first in Washington. I worked there for three years. Then I transferred to New York.
Mr. McDaniel: Right. So you went to New York. What did you do in New York?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, it was with the Manhattan District. See, I had asked for a transfer because I was working for the government. I was working for the government, and I said, “Could I transfer someplace close to Pennsylvania?” They offered me this job at the Manhattan District at Fifth Avenue. I wasn’t there six months till they said, “We’re moving.”
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: I asked them where and they said, “Well, I can’t tell you where we’re going.” But I said, “I’m going with you.”
Mr. McDaniel: So you were a secretary in New York at the Manhattan District.
Mrs. Klemski: I was secretary.
Mr. McDaniel: Were you a secretary to a specific person or to a group?
Mrs. Klemski: To a group. They used to call them pools. You were put in this pool and then whoever called for you to take dictation, you went there to his office.
Mr. McDaniel: So it was the Manhattan District. Did you know what was going on? Did you know anything about it?
Mrs. Klemski: No, they told me absolutely nothing. Now, I worked for the State Department when I was in Washington, but of course this was, they said, Manhattan District. I worked under Colonel Vanden Bulck up in New York. Then of course he transferred to Oak Ridge, too.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Now, I guess before you went to work for the State Department did they do any kind of security clearance on you before you took that job?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. What do you remember?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, when I first took that Civil Service test, that’s when they went to Pennsylvania, and my mother said the security people were there every day asking about what I did. Of course, my dad was a coal miner, and there was nothing they could gain there because I graduated from high school. It was just a regular – in other words, I lived just a regular life.
Mr. McDaniel: Regular, small town, rural life.
Mrs. Klemski: Small town, nothing doing there.
Mr. McDaniel: Had you ever been anywhere else? Had you traveled before you went to Washington? Had you ever been anywhere?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I would go to see my brother in Texas because he was ordained in 1937. So I used to go to Texas to visit him.
Mr. McDaniel: Where in Texas did you go?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, he was first stationed in Vernon, Texas. Then he was transferred to Longview, Texas, and that’s where he died, in Longview.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Mhm.
Mr. McDaniel: So you went to New York and you worked in the secretarial pool there for what, for six months?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Then they transferred you to Oak Ridge.
Mrs. Klemski: Then they said they were moving.
Mr. McDaniel: So tell me about that. Tell me about that experience.
Mrs. Klemski: Well that was kind of exciting because they said, “We’re moving.” Of course, when I told my mother, she didn’t like that very much, but she agreed. She agreed to let me go. I thought it was exciting, going someplace I didn’t know where I was going. They got me my train ticket; I rode first class on the train. Came here to Oak Ridge. Rainy, rainy day. They pulled up at the AEC building and tried to drop me off. Well, the woman before me stepped in mud up to her knees, and I had black suede shoes that I paid twenty-three dollars for. I said, ��I can’t do that.” [telephone rings] Excuse me.
Mr. McDaniel: That’s okay. Hold on just a second. Let me turn the camera off. Do you need to get that or do you want to just let it ring?
[break in interview]
Mr. McDaniel: Okay. So you had these black suede shoes, and they tried to drop you off at the –
Mrs. Klemski: Up at the AEC building and the mud was – well you can imagine in August of ’43. We had the AEC building, we had the dormitory that I was going to live in, and they had just started building some homes along Tennessee Avenue. This was a rural town. There was nothing here when I came, you know. So I wouldn’t step in that mud, so the cab driver carried me inside. But the woman that stepped in that mud before me, she was up to her knees in mud.
[break in recording]
Mr. McDaniel: So you walked from your dorm to work, barefoot.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, had to because the mud was so deep. It was really – they didn’t have any sidewalks. You know, this was August of ’43. There was nothing here. So, I said I came in the early days, but I really enjoyed my stay here.
Mr. McDaniel: So when you first got here what did you do? Where did you work?
Mrs. Klemski: Up at the AEC building.
Mr. McDaniel: Was that the Castle on the Hill?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. And I worked under – Colonel Vanden Bulck was the top boss. Then I worked for Mr. Smitts. I was in the insurance section. That looks like somebody coming here.
Mr. McDaniel: Well, I’ll answer it.
[break in recording]
Mr. McDaniel: So you worked for Vanden Bulck.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he was the top boss. Then I worked for Mr. Smitts. He had the secretarial pool, but every time Colonel Vanden Bulck – every time he had somebody to visit, he’d call me in for a dictation. That’s how I met General Groves. I didn’t know it was General Groves. He introduced himself as G.G. So I called him G.G. the whole time. Of course, Colonel Vanden Bulck had his own secretary, but every time she was out of town they would call me in to take dictation. I took dictation from General Groves and then several months later found out that it was General Groves.
Mr. McDaniel: What was he like? Tell me.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, he was wonderful. When I first met him he said, “I’m G.G.” So I called him G.G. all the time. Of course, Colonel Vanden Bulck’s secretary, Sherry, her name was Sherry, she was out of town quite a bit and I don’t know whether she traveled for him. So I took quite a bit of dictation from General Groves and from Colonel Vanden Bulck, too. But I got to know Colonel Vanden Bulck pretty good and of course General Groves, too. He was a big man. Of course he was a general, but he used to just call me – he was in uniform, however, but at that time I didn’t think too much about that.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess they were very careful in the letters that they wrote.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess they talked around things a lot I’m sure.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, they did. Well, of course we knew not to say anything. In fact, I think we all worried about it. We’d get together in the dorm and talk about it. They’d say, “Well do you think they listened to what we said today? I hope they didn’t record us.” There was just that fear that you might be mentioned or something like that.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Now when you first came to Oak Ridge, did you go through any security training or anything like that?
Mrs. Klemski: No. The limo took me up to the AEC building. Of course we had the gates you know. You couldn’t get past those gates. In fact, I had a brother – when I first got married here – I got married here in ’45 – met my husband here – I had a brother who was in the Army and he was getting ready to ship overseas, and he wanted to come see me. So he pulled in. Of course, didn’t tell me he was coming. I got this call at home at 2:00 in the morning, “Your brother’s here.��� Well, of course I didn’t have a pass for him. You had to get a pass for everybody. I said, “Clem, I can’t come down and get you.” He said, “What the hell kind of town is this?” He said, “Here I am in the Army; they won’t let me visit you.” He had to wait until the next morning till I could get a pass, and he came and spent a couple of days with me.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Well that’s good. What did he do, just hang around or did he find someplace to sleep?
Mrs. Klemski: He was at that little guest house at the Elza gate, and they played poker all night long. He said they offered him drinks. At that time we had no beer, no nothing. He said, “Oh,” he said, “They were wonderful to me.” Of course him being in the Army, I suppose that’s the reason.
Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure.
Mrs. Klemski: So he stayed with me a couple days and I had to get a pass for him.
Mr. McDaniel: Now you lived in the dorm at the time?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, I lived in number 1, the first dorm that was built.
Mr. McDaniel: Where was that?
Mrs. Klemski: You know where that old cafeteria used to be?
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm.
Mrs. Klemski: Right across the street. Of course, they pulled it down now, but it was a big dorm.
Mr. McDaniel: So you ate at the cafeteria.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, was that the Central Cafeteria?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, the Central Cafeteria.
Mr. McDaniel: What was that food like?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, it was good. The only trouble is there wasn’t enough of it and you couldn’t go to the grocery store and buy something, but we managed. We finally bought a little hot plate and of course we had grocery stores. We would fix some soup and things like that because it seemed like the cafeteria was never open when you were hungry. But it was exciting. It was an exciting adventure.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, what was it like being here a young, single lady? And I guess there was a lot, from what I understand, there was a lot to do for singles and there were a lot of young, single folks here.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, there were a lot. They had dances. They had dances at the tennis courts. They had a bowling alley. Oh, just so many things. We were busy constantly. In the evening we’d get together, a group of us would. Of course then we met some of the young men. Our pastor, the Catholic priest, the week that I came to Oak Ridge – of course, I went up to his home on Geneva Avenue and he was going to organize a young people’s group. He said, “I’m going to organize you young people so that you can meet each other and marry.”
Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, and there were quite a few marriages in that group.
Mr. McDaniel: Was your mass being held at the Central Theater or was it at the Chapel on the Hill?
Mrs. Klemski: Well first at the Central Theater and then at the Chapel on the Hill or maybe vice versa. I can’t remember which was first. I think it was the theater.
Mr. McDaniel: Yeah, I think the theater was first.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah. Then we’d go to the Chapel on the Hill. That little chapel was precious. It really was. Then of course in 1950 we built our church, but that first pastor, that Father Singer, he was wonderful.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: And there were a lot of marriages that took place at that time.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, so you were here. So you moved here in ’43 and you worked as a secretary for General Groves and Vanden Bulck at the Castle on the Hill.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right.
Mr. McDaniel: Then when did you meet your husband? Tell me about meeting him.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, of course, I came in August. I was dating a fellow from – in those early days, those young men were always looking for a girlfriend. I met this young man and he was from Wilmington, Delaware. So I dated him a couple times and then in November of ’43 he said, “I’m going to take you to Knoxville to dinner at the Regas Hotel at the Regas” –
Mr. McDaniel: Restaurant.
Mrs. Klemski: Restaurant. Well, that was a treat because we didn’t have anything like that in Oak Ridge.
Mr. McDaniel: It still is. It still is a treat.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, it is. It really is. I love that place. Then he said, “And we’re going to the train station to pick up my friend who worked for DuPont in Alabama. He’s being transferred to Oak Ridge.” Well, we went to the train station and picked him up and I discovered that he was Polish. I was Polish. He came from Wilmington and he was a good friend of this other fellow. So, of course, I was dating Lou, the first fellow, and after a couple months I thought I think I’d rather date this Polish fellow. So I told Lou, I said, “Lou, I don’t think I want to date you anymore.” In those days it was funny the way you did it, but that’s the way I did it. I said, “I think I’d rather date your roommate.” He said, “Well he has a girlfriend in Alabama.” But three months later he called me and he said, “You want to meet me for coffee at the cafeteria across the street?” Well, my housemother wouldn’t let me go. He worked shift work. He worked for DuPont. My housemother wouldn’t let me go. But after a couple times she finally said okay. So I met him for coffee at 10:00 after he got through work. A couple months later, we dated. A couple months later, he asked me to marry him.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Then we decided to get married in January of ’45. That was another big problem because my folks were old. My dad was a coal miner and of course it was hard to get a pass at that time. And his family was old. So we finally decided to go up home and get married and then come back.
Mr. McDaniel: And then come back.
Mrs. Klemski: So that’s what we did.
Mr. McDaniel: So you went there and you got married and you came back. So where did you live when you came back?
Mrs. Klemski: When I first came back?
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm.
Mrs. Klemski: Of course I lived at the dormitory, but when we got married we got an “E” apartment on Tennessee Avenue. That was our first home. Then, of course, in no time I got pregnant and we moved up on 108 Outer Drive. That was a two-bedroom “A” house. Well, then when I was expecting my second child, we asked for a bigger house. We moved down on East Malta in a “C” house. Every time you had a child you could graduate to a bigger house. That was the way it was. Then when I was expecting my third child, by that time we were able to buy property. So he bought this lot up on East Drive and we built our home up there.
Mr. McDaniel: And you lived there for –
Mrs. Klemski: We lived there until he died. My husband died in 1987, and two years later I just couldn’t afford to keep the house. So that’s when I moved here.
Mr. McDaniel: So you had three children.
Mrs. Klemski: Three children.
Mr. McDaniel: And they grew up in Oak Ridge.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, they all graduated from Oak Ridge High School. They went to St. Mary’s Catholic School for eight years and then graduated from Oak Ridge High. My oldest son was on the police department here while going to University of Tennessee. This was after he joined the Army. He spent twenty-five years in the Army and now he’s retired. And the second son, he worked at the plant. He lives in Oliver Springs now. Then my youngest daughter, she graduated Oak Ridge High School, married a fellow from Oak Ridge. She was a school teacher and now she’s retired in Atlanta.
Mr. McDaniel: Now where does your oldest son live?
Mrs. Klemski: He lives in Sierra Vista, Arizona. That was his last duty station and he loved that area. So that’s where he lives.
Mr. McDaniel: So I guess you get to see them sort of regularly.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, I go there every January and spend a month or so with them. Then of course he comes back to Oak Ridge because he worked on the police department and he still has friends here who he graduated from high school with.
Mr. McDaniel: What was it like raising kids in Oak Ridge during those days?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh, it was wonderful.
Mr. McDaniel: So I guess this was the ’50s, I guess.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, that was the ’50s, yeah, because my oldest son was born. We married in January of ’45. He was born in December of ’45. All my children were born in Oak Ridge, all educated here in Oak Ridge. The second son went off to college in Kentucky. He thought he wanted to be a priest, but that didn’t work out. So then he came back and worked at the plant. My daughter graduated from University of Tennessee and she’s a school teacher.
Mr. McDaniel: But when they were young in Oak Ridge, I guess that was a pretty happy time for everybody wasn’t it?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah. Oh, the kids loved Oak Ridge. They really did. It was a wonderful place to raise children. It really was. I think in the early days we had that secret city. It was kind of a chance for us to realize that where we were working. I think it was an important place. My children are all so happy they were born in Oak Ridge. They said, “We had a wonderful growing up.” And I think they did.
Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure they got a good education. They had lots to do.
Mrs. Klemski: They did. They have the best of schools here. Everything was top notch. I think they hired all the best teachers in the early days.
Mr. McDaniel: Let’s go back just a little bit. So, when did you find out what Oak Ridge was doing?
Mrs. Klemski: I don’t think I ever did until my husband retired.
Mr. McDaniel: But you know the bomb, when the bomb was dropped.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yeah. Well of course they never talked about building the bomb.
Mr. McDaniel: So do you remember that day?
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yes. I remember vividly.
Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. So you were pregnant. You were married and pregnant the summer of ’45.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. They talked about the celebration going on. Well, I couldn’t go to that celebration and I wanted to, but of course all my other friends that did go were telling me how wonderful it was. It was just an exciting time. Here I couldn’t do very much at that time, but it was an exciting time anyway.
Mr. McDaniel: Now after your kids were born and got grown up, did you go back to work?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I wanted to because I had a good job with the government. I worked in Washington and then here and I really wanted to go back to work, but my husband said, “I want to family.” He said, “I think you need to stay home and raise a family.” Our pastor at St. Mary’s needed somebody to run the cafeteria. So he asked me if I’d help him out running the cafeteria. So I told him I’d do it for a year or two. I ended up doing it for eighteen years.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. And the school children that are now grown up and married and have children, they still talk about the wonderful food we had because we cooked from scratch. None of this prepared food. Of course, they remember that. That was an exciting time, too.
Mr. McDaniel: Now when did you go there? About what year did you start that?
Mrs. Klemski: I started that – Father Singer came – I guess it was in ’50 when my daughter was in the first grade. I guess it was ’55. He asked me to work. I said, “Well when she starts school I’ll work.” So I did. It was the same school. I could take her to school and work at the same place. So that was good.
Mr. McDaniel: And you did that until the early ’70s.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah. Every time a new priest came in I’d say, “Well I’m going to quit.” They’d beg me to stay on. So I did until my husband had his heart attack in ’73 and I finally had to quit.
Mr. McDaniel: So after the war what did your husband do here?
Mrs. Klemski: Well he worked for DuPont in the beginning. Then DuPont was moving to Charles Town, West Virginia. Incidentally, the first fellow I dated here, my sister came to visit us, I guess it was in April of ’44, yeah, ’44. She met the fellow that I was dating and they married.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Oh my goodness.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he was with DuPont, see. My husband was with DuPont originally. Well then DuPont was leaving here and my husband was supposed to be transferred to Charles Town, West Virginia. I was pregnant, could not go with him, so I said, “Well I’ll go back home and then you decide.” Well in the meantime Monsanto called my husband. He was a machinist at the plant X-10.
Mr. McDaniel: At X-10.
Mrs. Klemski: Monsanto was coming in and they asked him if he would stay on in Oak Ridge. Of course, he was delighted to be able to stay at Oak Ridge. And besides, they offered him a raise to stay. So we were so happy that we could stay. Do you know all the people that went with DuPont to Charles Town, within a year they were back looking for a job because DuPont had pulled out of that plant up there.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So that was a lucky break for us that we stayed on.
Mr. McDaniel: So he was a machinist at X-10.
Mrs. Klemski: He was a machinist at X-10.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, did he do that his whole career?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Of course, DuPont hired him and sent him to Alabama. That’s where he worked when this fellow from Wilmington brought him to Oak Ridge and that’s the first time I met him.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, but he worked at X-10 his whole career?
Mrs. Klemski: Yes. In fact, they hired him right after he got through high school. He worked in Wilmington. Then they moved him to Alabama. First they moved him to Florida and then to Alabama. Then from Alabama he came here.
Mr. McDaniel: Now when did he retire?
Mrs. Klemski: Well he had to retire in ’73.
Mr. McDaniel: Because he had a heart attack.
Mrs. Klemski: He had a massive coronary. So of course we doctored with the doctors here in Oak Ridge. At the end of two years they told me there was nothing they could do for him. I had this brother in Texas and he had been in the hospital in Houston and I had met some of the doctors there when my brother had a heart attack. So Dr. Gurney said, “I want to send him to Alabama to a hospital down there.” I said, “Well if it’s all right with you, I’d rather go to Texas because I know some of the doctors there.” I flew him to Texas and, do you know, they evaluated him. Here in Knoxville, they told me if he lived six months that was it.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: They couldn’t do anything for him, but when I took him to Texas, they put in a pacemaker and did all this surgery and said, “Come back in six months.” When we went back in six months they said you’re good to –
Mr. McDaniel: Good to go.
Mrs. Klemski: Good to go. He played golf and had twelve years after that.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: So that was a miracle that I took him to Houston because here in Oak Ridge they couldn’t do anything for him.
Mr. McDaniel: Right. Now, how old was he when he passed away?
Mrs. Klemski: He passed away in ’73.
Mr. McDaniel: No, he had his heart attack in ’73. He passed away in ’86?
Mrs. Klemski: In ’87. He passed away in ’87. He was eighty-two when he died.
Mr. McDaniel: Eighty-two, okay.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, so I’ve been alone ever since then.
Mr. McDaniel: Well, do you have any favorite stories or favorite memories about your time in Oak Ridge, whether it was in the early days or later?
Mrs. Klemski: Who me?
Mr. McDaniel: Yes.
Mrs. Klemski: No. It was just such an exciting place to come to. Everything was different. Everything was new. Even the dances at the tennis courts and eating at the Guest House. That was exciting to me coming from a small town naturally. Everything about Oak Ridge has been wonderful. I’ve really had some wonderful memories.
Mr. McDaniel: So you were telling me earlier that you had an opportunity to leave, but I guess your son wanted you to come move near him I suppose.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah.
Mr. McDaniel: And you decided to stay.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, he still thinks at ninety-one I should be living someplace, but my husband’s buried here and I told him, I said, “Jim, I just can’t leave Oak Ridge.” I dearly love Oak Ridge. I do. I grew up here. I feel like I did.
Mr. McDaniel: I guess you made lots of good friends that you still have today, I suppose.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. I still have some friends. Of course most of them have passed on, but I made some wonderful friends here. In the early days it seemed like it was a big family. Everybody knew each other. We associated. We visited one another. There was that tightness, which we don’t have it anymore of course, but it was a wonderful place. It was a wonderful place to raise children. My children still say that today. They’re glad they were born and brought up in Oak Ridge because it was a wonderful place, and it was.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, I just have a couple more questions for you. One is – let’s kind of go back. Now, 60-something years later after the war’s over and you found out what you were working on, how did you feel about that when you found out and do you still feel the same way today? I mean that you were working on the bomb, so to speak.
Mrs. Klemski: That’s right. Of course I wasn’t part of that, but when we heard it was what they were doing here – and see, I had two brothers in the service. One was in the Philippines. The other one was in Germany. They were in the service, both of them. I thought it was wonderful when they found out about that bomb. Then it was exciting to me after that when I’d go down to visit with my son. He was stationed in – oh, a place in Arizona where the – Trinity site.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, the Trinity site.
[Editor’s note: The Trinity site is in New Mexico.]
Mrs. Klemski: And they took me there.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: They took me there. That was exciting because of course I’d been hearing about that, this bomb being developed there and all. So that was exciting to me, too.
Mr. McDaniel: So you were glad that the war was over.
Mrs. Klemski: Oh yes, yes, I was. Then of course, both my brothers came home from the service. Of course my younger brother, he had a lot of problems because he was in the Philippines. He was seventeen when he went in. Then my brother in Germany, he was missing in action for a while. Finally they found him, but he’s passed on. So all I’ve got left out of my five brothers and sisters is one sister.
Mr. McDaniel: So now you’re ninety-one. You live here in Oak Ridge. What do you do? What do you do now?
Mrs. Klemski: Well, I get up every morning. I go to mass because I belong to the Catholic Church. Go out for breakfast at Panera’s with all my friends, and to me, that’s my day. Then I come home and just read and catch up on things. I do still have a couple friends here.
Mr. McDaniel: So you still stay social and active.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, oh yeah, I’m trying to. I’ve been getting up every day and going to mass and going out with my group. I think that’s going to keep me going for – I hope for a little while. When you’ve been in a place – it’ll be seventy years in August. August 13th, the day I came to Oak Ridge.
Mr. McDaniel: Is that right?
Mrs. Klemski: Seventy years because I came in ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: Right, ’43.
Mrs. Klemski: ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: Well is there anything else you want to tell me about? Anything else that you want to mention?
Mrs. Klemski: No, I think we’ve covered most of it, I think. All the exciting times. Those early days were wonderful, I thought. I felt like I grew up in Oak Ridge. I really did. Of course, my children being all educated here, and I love when they come home and say, “Mom, this is a wonderful place to grow up.” They still say that even though they’re scattered all over the United States. I’m glad that they were born in Oak Ridge, too, and I’m glad I came here in ’43.
Mr. McDaniel: All right then. Well thank you very much for allowing me to come talk to you.
Mrs. Klemski: Well, thank you, Mr. McDaniel. I’ve enjoyed talking to you, too. We covered some things that I think I hadn’t mentioned before, but those were exciting times. I think Oak Ridge is a wonderful place to come and all my friends who come, even those that came in ’60s and ’70s, they all say it’s a wonderful place. It is. Of course, at one time, we had 75,000 people. That’s a lot of people.
Mr. McDaniel: Mhm, a lot of people.
Mrs. Klemski: Yes, it was. Now we’re down to what – 38,000 or just something like that?
Mr. McDaniel: I think it’s close to 30,000.
Mrs. Klemski: Yeah, probably.
Mr. McDaniel: Something like that.
Mrs. Klemski: It’s still an exciting town.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. All right, well, thank you very much.
Mrs. Klemski: Okay. Well, thank you, Mr. McDaniel.
[end of recording]